Mine-sweeper.



M. W. GREEN.

MINE SWEEPER.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 17, I915.

Rm n n 00 2 V O N d 6 LL n m a P M W. GREEN.

MINE SWEEPER.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT.l7, 1915. mmmm. Patented Nov. 28,1916.

3 SHEETSSHEET 2.

M W. GREEN.

MINE SWEEPtR.

APPLICATION man SEPT-17.1915.

mwmm, Patented Ndv.28,1916.

3 SHEETSSHEET 3.

MORRIS W. GREEN, OF IiANDlNG, NEW JERSEY.

' IVIINE-SWEEPER.

LEUGAQQ.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented New. 28 191 6.

Application filed September 1'7, 1915. Serial No. 51,220.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Momns W. GREEN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Landing, in the county of Morris, State of New Jersey, have invented certain-new and useful Improvements in Mine-Sweepers; and I do hereby declare th'e following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the 1nvention, such as will enable others skilled the water and so engage it as to cause its explosion at a safe distance from the ship.

It is further an object of the invention to provide such a fender device which is formed in sections that may when it is not desired to use the fender be swung to lie along the sides of the ship for convenience in the manipulation of the ship and to provide a free access to the fender for repair ing it should any of its parts be broken or mutilated upon contact with a mine.

It is more specifically an object to provide such a fender including separable sections which has at its forward portion a rotatable sweeper portionadapted to engage the mine and cause it to explode adjacent said sweeping member, which comprises a relatively light skeleton structure, whereby a minimum amount of damage is suifered by the fender upon explosion of the mine.

It is still further an object of the invention to provide novel and simple means for looking the sections of the fender structure together and in operative position.

With the above and other objects and advantages in view, the invention resides more particularly in the novel combination, formation and arrangement of parts as more fully described hereinafter and pointed out in the appended claims.

Reference is had to the accompanying drawings, wherein similar characters of reference designate corresponding parts throughout the several' views, and in which 4 Figure 1 is a top plan view of. a ship equipped with the improved mine destroying fender; Fig. 2 isa top plan view of the structure shown in Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a vertical sectional view taken on the line 33 of Fig. 1 through the means for swinging sections laterally; Fig. 4 is a horizontal sectional view on the line 44 of Fig. 1; Fig. 5 is a transverse sectional view on the line 55 of Fig. 1 showing the means for looking the sections together; Fig. 6 is a detailed sectional view taken through said locking means on the line 6-6 of Fig. 5; Fig. 7 is a sectional view through the sweeper mechanism on the line 7-7 of Fig. 2; and Fig. 8 is a detailed sectional view on the line 88 of Fig. '2; Fig. 9 is a sectional detail of one of the chain supports.

Referring now more particularly to the accompanying drawings, 5 designates the forward portion of a ship,'to which is attached the improved mine sweeper.

The body portion of the sweeping apps; ratus comprises .two sections which are adapted to be connected together to extend across the front of the vessel and which when it is not desired to operate the sweeper may be disconnected and swung to .lie against the sides of the vessel. frame work of each of. these sections com prisesa pair of spaced parallel beams 6;

and a pair of arched beams 7 secured at their forward ends at 8 to the forward portions of the beams 6 and extended rearwardly in vertical alincment with the said beams and connected thereto at various The main i Ipoints by diagonal and transverse brace cams 9 to produce a rigid structure. When disposed in an operative pos1t1on these beams extend parallel to the longitudinal axis of the vessel and the outer beams 6 and 7 extend rearwardly past the ends of the inner beams. Vertically spaced attaching plates 10 are carried by the respective side of the vessel and each of these plates carriesforward and rear pairs of lugs 11 and 12 respectively, embracing the ends of the beams. A pivot shaft 13 is passed through the lugs 12 and the ends of the outer beam to serve as the permanent connection of said sections to the vessel, and a shaft 1 1 is removably passed through the lugs 11 and through the end of the inner beam to hold the sections in a forwardly extending posi tion.

Means are provided for swinging these sections to a forward position or to a rear the vessel they spaced relation position lying against the vessel which comprises vertical shafts ournaled in bear-' ings 16 carried by the plates forwardly of the lugs12. The pivoted ends of the outer beams 6 have fixed thereto gears 17 and pinions 18 are carried by the lower ends of the shafts 15 to mesh therewith, whereby upon rotation of the shafts the sections will be swung. The upper ends of the shafts carry gear wlieels19 which may be operated through any suitable means.

Whenv the sections extend forwardly of are disposed in parallel and tolockthem in this relation, rods 20 extend inwardly from one seetion and are adapted to engage in socket urged resiliently them earried by the beams 7 f the free end of the levers adjacent said the lever and against the .members 21 carried by the other section.

Each" of these socket members are provided with a transverse opening 22 communicating with the bore thereof and the respective rodis provided with a recess 23 adapted to aline with this opening. A lever 24 is intermediately socket member and has. formed at one, end a pawl 26 adapted to engage through the opening 22 and in the recess 23 to lock the rod against movement with relation to the socketmember, the pawl being to such position by a spring 2'? bearing against the other end of adjacent portion of the section. The free end of the rod 21 is beveled at-28 to automatically actuate the pawl upon its-being inserted in the socket member. Any number of these locking connections may be employed as'desired, but in the drawings there is shown a pair of and a pair carried by the beams 6 and these-members are unlocked by means of cables 29 secured to 24 and trained through suitable eyes 30 provided on the respective section, tended to a'point upon pulling said and .the cables are ex- 31 on the vessel whereby cables the 'pawls 26 will be retracted to permit thesections to swing apart.

7 The sweepers proper are carried by a shaft journaled in the ends of the beams 6 and this shaft is in two sections 32 and 33 respectively, whereby it may be'separated when the sections are swung apart. To ac complish this, the section-32 terminates ad- -iacent one of the inner beams 6 and is enlarged and provided with a squared socket v of the section 33 is squared to lockingly engage therein. These shaft sections are locked together by a plate 35 disposed over the outer portion of the said inner end beam and intermediately pivoted thereto at 36. The forward portion of this plate carries a depending flange 37 which embraces a side of the beam. The shaft section 33 is provided with a circumscribing" flange 38 which is adaptedto be -pivoted on a suitable boss 25' disposed beneath the adjacent fiange 37'and thuslockingly hold the sections against retraction, the forward end of the plate being normally urged into this position by a spring 39 secured between the rear end of the plate and the beam 6. For rocking the plate to lift its forward end and thus release the shaft section 33, an arm 40 extends upwardly from the plate and a cable 41 is secured to this arm and extends toward the ship through eyes 42 carried on the adjacent bodysection so that by pulling the cable the plate will be lifted to free the flange 38 of the shaft section and permit it to be retracted.

Each of the sweepers proper comprises a hub 43 which is keyed or otherwise fixed on a respective one of the shaft sections 32 or 33 and a plurality of radially extending arcuate fingers 44. The shaft is driven to rotate these sweepers by an engine 45 which is carried by brackets 46 secured to the bow of the ship and is operatively connected to a shaft 49 extending transversely across the bow of the ship and jouriialed in bracket arms 50 secured to the bow. A sprocket wheel 51 is secured on this shaft and a sprocket chain 52 is trained around this Wheel and around a wheel 53 on the section 33, of the sweeper shaft.' This chain is guided by a roller 54 slidably supported from the sides of a frame 55 extending inwardly from one of the transverse members 9 of one of the sections, and by additional rollers 54' supported from the inner arched beams 7 In the operation of the device, as the vessel is propelled the sweeper shaft is actuated to rotate the sweepers forwardly and downwardly and thus should any mines be encountered by these sweepers the mines will be swung downwardly and under these sweepers and by this movement will be so violently agitated as to insure their explosion at a point sufficiently forward of the ship or vessel to prevent any damage thereto. Upon the mines being exploded in this manner damage might be done to the sweeper mechanism and particularly to the sweeper fingers, but this damage may be readily repaired by withdrawing the shaft 145 and swinging the sections rearwardly to the sides-0f the ship.

A further means for properly securing the sections of the apparatus when in their forward position comprises a pair of rods 56 having their rear ends slidably passed through lugs 57 carried by plates 58 secured at the sides of the vessel, and having their forward ends hooked at 59 to engage in tively of the frame to engage, depress and" incense sections are to be swung to the side of the ship, the rods are disengaged by unhooking their forward end and they are permitted to swing downwardly at the sides of the ship.

While I have illustrated and described a particular embodiment of my invention, I

have merely done so for the sake of eonvenience and I do not wish to be emitters-- that particular ei-nbodimentasit is obvious that numerous changes may be made within the details of construction thereof without in any way departing from the spirit of the invention or exceeding the scope of the appended claims. v e

What is claimed is:

1.. The combination with a boat, of a frame secured thereto and extending forwardly of the how, a mine sweeping member rotatably supported at the forward end of the frame to engage, depress and explode a mine in its'path, and operating means for said mine sweeping member. The combination with a boat, of a frame secured thereto, a mine sweeping member supported by and movable relaexplode a mine in its path, and'means for actuating said mine sweeping member.

3. lChe combination with a boat of relatively movable frame sections pivoted thereto, to extend at times outwardly of the boat in parallel relation and lie. folded thereagainst at times, means for automatically locking said sections together in extended position and mine sweeping members at the free .ends of the section.

4. The combination with a boat," of pivoted sections normally folded thereagainst, means for moving said sections toward each other to extend outwardly of the boat in. abutting relation, means connecting said" sections -whereby to provide a rigid frame v-st inc'tnre;anda mine sweeping member op eratively supported by the frame thus provided, said member including separable elements respectively carried by said pivoted sections.

5. A mine sweeper comprising the combination with a. boat of independent frame sections hinged thereto to extend at times forwardly of the bow, rotary mine sweepers at the free end of each of said sections, means for connecting said sweepers for simultaneous movement, and operating means for said sweepers.

6. A mine sweeper comprising the combination with a boat, of independent frame sections hinged thereto to extend at times forwardly of the bow orlie folded against the sides at times, a mine submerging and exploding member operatively supported by each of said sections and means for actuating said members simultaneously.

In testimony whereof, I affix my signature, in the-presence of two Witnesses.

' MORRISKY. GREEN. Witnesses:

JOHN S. WOODHULL, AARON D. STEPHENS.

Gopies or this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. 0. 

